1/23/2009 @ 7:30PM

Top 10 Super Bowl Teams

Steelers and Cardinals fans may be swollen this week with pride, but they’ve got nothing on Dallas Cowboys supporters.

That’s because the Cowboys top a list of the best Super Bowl-era teams. Since the first “World Championship Game” in 1967, the Cowboys have outpaced all other NFL franchises when it comes to full-season performance. Though the team is tied with the Steelers and the 49ers for the most Super Bowl wins (five), it has the most Super Bowl appearances (eight), a record 29 playoff appearances (which means they’ve missed the playoffs only 14 times in the last 43 seasons) and the highest regular-season winning percentage during the Super Bowl era (0.606, besting the Miami Dolphins’ 0.579).

We compiled our list by measuring the following: Super Bowl wins and appearances, playoff appearances and overall regular-season winning percentage. We weighted more heavily the first two metrics.

These measures are important barometers. When discussing Super Bowl teams, football fans generally think in terms of dynasties–that is, franchises that have won numerous Super Bowls in a short time span: The Green Bay Packers of the late 1960s, the Pittsburgh Steelers of the mid-to-late 1970s, the San Francisco 49ers of the late 1980s, the Dallas Cowboys of the mid-1990s and the New England Patriots of the 2000s.

But the bigger picture tells a better story. Which franchise could stake the claim as the best of the modern era in terms of overall excellence?

With that in mind, the Cowboys reign. The team has had success throughout the Super Bowl era, appearing in four Super Bowls in the 1970s, winning two under coach Tom Landry and quarterback Roger Staubach. Jerry Jones bought the team in 1989, and the Cowboys won three Super Bowls in the 1990s around its Hall of Fame trio of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin.

But the team’s hold on the top spot may be tenuous. The New England Patriots, though they lost star quarterback Tom Brady in the first game of the season and missed the playoffs this year, still finished 11-5 and show no signs of imminent decline with owner Robert Kraft and coach Bill Belichick in charge.

And the No. 7 Denver Broncos have a new coach (former Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels) and a good young quarterback (Jay Cutler) and may be just a few key defensive players away from being a serious contender again.

Then there are the Steelers. The team will appear in their seventh Super Bowl on Feb. 1 against the Arizona Cardinals (making its first appearance).

Should the Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII, they would ascend to the top spot in our rankings, thanks to a record six titles.